Hailed by The New Yorker as "the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language," William Trevor is an Irish storyteller whose novels and stories, when they appear, are considered literary events. This collection of stories, following A Bit on the Side (named a Best Book of the Year by such reviewers as the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle), begins and ends with the O. Henry Award winners "The Dressmaker's Child" and "Folie ŕ Deux"; in between are ten more gems, including the previously unpublished "Old Flame."

"[After the end of civilization], we will have only books like William Trevor's new collection Cheating at Canasta to remind us how serious, noble, painful and happy human life once was. Trevor's stories—so like James Joyce's and Alice Munro's—preserve something of the scale of human life."—LATimes

"Critics enthusiastically greet any new collection by William Trevor. Cheating at Canasta is no exception, with many reviewers calling it one of the best of Trevor's 12 short story collections. Two of the stories have already won the O. Henry Award.... Reviewers were particularly impressed that the 80-year-old Trevor remains both timeless and timely, importing his characteristic style into an Ireland that has greatly changed since he started writing. The only significant disagreement over Cheating at Canasta was which of its dozen stories is the best."—Bookmarks Magazine